Training Log Archive: Ari-o

SkiWOC is in Austria next year. 3h from MUC (direct flight from BOS). Hmm.

C • Bummer 2

Was going to do something earlier, but didn't so a short Somerun with Elena.

Warming up in very small circles. Having a small portion of the map skiable would be nice! At one point a ski popped off, so good that happened pre-race.

Ski-O continues to be fun, and today was a marked improvement in things like navigation, paying attention and being able to feel my toes. 28 was downright balmy compared to yesterday, which meant that I didn't have the same thick wool underlayer to attach my dibbler to, so it went around my watch strap (this worked well).

Also fun: heat overnight. Highly appreciated.

I went out late, and for whatever reason, 1m behind Adrian. It was a punch start, so not even that long. This was a fun map to ski; I would have liked a bit more of a small trail network (and it seems like there may have been places they could have done this) but at least some awkward skate did occur. Also a bit more route choice-y-ness would have been good, there were some bits which were just "here's an obvious route ski and and don't eff up the nav bits." Which was fine, because I could think more clearly at 28 than -6.

I every so slowly reeled in Adrian, who I saw at a number of out-and-backs, and was a good rabbit to keep me skiing hard and paying attention. Skis were fine, mostly glad I wasn't on race skis but they definitely would have been faster (good coverage overall, but still, Ski-O). I skied the first map cleanly (I don't have them in front of me right now so am going off memory and AP map). Near the end, Adrian was just behind me, we came down a narrow trail and I was headed straight on it towards the marsh crossing, and he took a right behind me. That route seemed sub-optimal. Did he know something I didn't? Was there a control I hadn't seen? I got to my control, punched it, and carried on, no sign of him.

I flubbed the map flip control, twice. First I went high, because I misread where there was a little trail to an outlook (or maybe a second one wasn't mapped) so had to drop back down. Then I wasn't sure if I'd punched the map flip control. I can remember "read number, listen for beep" but apparently not also "flip map" so only two of three get done. My kingdom for an SI stick which shows the last two digits of the last punch registered (please!). Then it was off to the next control (high, which seemed about the same as low) and then whee down a narrow trail and onto the marsh crossing.

This was going well until two snowshoers approached, obliterating the nice, glazed, skied-in tracks I was following. Now I was breaking trail and Adrian was catching up on me in my tracks. I got off the lake and made a small mistake. My first instinct was to go right, but then realized left would be slightly longer but downhill into the control and not require turning around, so probably better. So I went left, but then realized right was shorter and forgot why I had decided to go left, so backtracked. Only a few seconds, but still.

Went low to 18 (probably correct) right ahead of Adrian, and we both punched and I said "we're going up the hill on foot, right" and he already had his skis off, having spied the broken trail, too. This is why I need to keep my old boots around, can't do this in the fancy carbon boots. This was probably a few seconds faster, what with the broken trail and with it leading right to the control (the race org probably should have broken and mapped the trail, since once it was broken it was more of a benefit to us than earlier skiers).

Then down to the final few controls with Adrian, slightly behind, then slightly ahead to sprint into the finish. Finished only about 3:30 behind Chris, so a good showing. I think my mistakes were probably all in the few seconds range (strava suggests close to 2m for the map flip, but negligible elsewhere) so not a big difference, but if I had executed 14 better, I would have been a lot closer. Anyway, Ski-O continues to be fun.

Was I done skiing? Hardly! I've heard much about Van Ho and never skied there and it was on the way home and I skied for free with my credentials (otherwise $32; signing up for a single race would be cheaper than paying for three days of trail passes, and you get a jacket). Brianna was getting a ride with Wyatt the same way, so would be dropped off, so I skipped awards and headed east (also nice to break up the drive, at least a little, we also went right through Rikert).

I skittered around the race there and found my way into the older trail segment, and onto the Porter Loops. Up, up, some down, up. Trail was very cold snow and in some cases soft powder, could have used a few more passes but fine given the weather, although I nearly pitched over on a couple of downs. Fun trails, and I can see why the marathon here would be difficult (fun?). Headed around the ladies' loop and onto the snowmaking trails in perfect timing to meet Brianna and be tuckered out for the long drive home (much easier with the warmer, less windy conditions).

Would like to come back but gosh it is far.

Long Blue - Splits

Drove out to LP with Brianna, a Kiwi orienteer, which was great company for the drive. Dropped her off, made the joke "maybe I should just crash on a couch here" and then drove off to my hotel. -22˚, went down to -30˚ at SLK overnight.

Called the hotel to confirm res, and the hotelier (motelier?) showed me to my room. It seemed warm enough, but after -22 anything would feel warm. (My car is a champ, handled the cold and started right up in the morning.) So I went to get to sleep. It was maybe 40˚; it felt like the OH. Water didn't freeze, but it could have been closer to freezing.

Well, it turned out the little space heater they had in the place was no match for, you know, the Adirondacks. And I couldn't, say, microwave a bunch of water and use that latent heat to help because they said that might blow the room's circuit. The hot water didn't work, either. It was too late to reconnoiter, so I got my 20˚ sleeping bag and got to sleep, eventually.

No warmer in the morning. The house I'd dropped off at had a couch. And heat. (Hotels are $350+ with heat, this one was cheaper, gee I wonder why.) I went to check out and tell them I wouldn't be staying another night. The woman was unapologetic: I should expect it to be cold! It's an act of god! I shouldn't be surprised the pipes are frozen. She wasn't going to charge me for the second night (no derp!) and after nothing near an apology I refused to pay for the first, either. I was willing to pay half price but not after being treated like that.

Anyway I warmed up at the venue around and around the field, about -6˚ per the nose hair thermometer.

I guess there was a ski-o race! I was rusty, kept catching up to Kestrel (same maps) and then making a mistake. Pretty fun trails, tricky enough even without narrow trails (although with lots of snowshoe trails which are, well, narrow groomers are better). Made a mistake on the first control (they had two on a loop and I went to the wrong one, but realized it and went to the other—someone else didn't and MPed the first control!) and then caught up with Kestrel by the end of the first loop, taking a lead by taking an optimal downhill route.

But I flubbed the map handoff and he was off ahead. I caught up and passed him, but then took a boneheaded detour (I was on the right trail and just took a left for no real reason) and lost more time. And followed that with another misread (control in the woods, not on the trail where I'd seen a different control) so I was back to chasing him down. Also, thinking in these temperatures about much other than how much my feet hurt is hard.

Eventually skittered the last loop, making a couple of mistakes and not breaking skis. Came in a few seconds behind Kestrel, but he'd mispunched a go control at some point (two of the maps had the same finish sequence but not the third, which was our first, so he didn't notice until the end what had happened) which put me in third! So I got an OUSA medal for my efforts.

Staying on a couch tonight with hot water and heat and lots of orienteers speaking Russian.

Middle Blue A - Splits

Event: U.S. Ski Orienteering Championships
 

Current temperature in Saranac Lake:

-15˚, wind chill -34˚

Yeah not missing missing the sprint today …

Last night was the first night that I didn't power down around 2130, feeling a lot better.

Off to Bermans to get an air dibbler.

Decided not to go to Weston to ski in the snow guns, but this actually felt decent. I may have beaten this thing back!

Also, 100m per 5k of running hills in Somerville seems to be the going rate, which is good for my vert.

Also I found an old local road atlas and am going to use to highlight my routes.

Started feeling a lot better in the middle of the afternoon … maybe well enough to go to World Championships.

Then fell asleep for an hour. I think that was a sign.

Conditions there look pretty awful, but the snow guns are on, and it will soon go below 28˚ in Boston for the first time in three weeks. Next week we might have a course to ski on.

As for Ski-O, I am leaning towards skipping the sprint on Friday for logistics ease and keeping my fingers and toes. Since it might not happen anyway. (I have no idea if they could stack two events on Sunday, but if they somehow could, it would work … better? IDK if they can even pretend it is going to be >-20˚C on Friday.)

In any case, this cold seems to be progressing as most of mine do, 2-3 days of gunk, and then better.